Saturday, September 27, 2008

Last week, while I was trying to get Dagny's party invitations to print out, I said to the girls "cross your fingers."

Annika and I instantly crossed our fingers next to each other like you'd imagine.

Dagny quickly took the index finger from each hand and crossed them next to Annika's fingers. I tried to show her how to do it the way Annika was and she said "no, this way" and showed me again.

So, the workouts are all done.

The oatmeal is cooking on the stove.

Doug is in search of gas for the car.

The outfits are laid out on the bed, waiting for the kids to wake up so that I can retrieve the suitcases to pack us up.

I'm running transition plans throught my head - trying to decide if it's worth it to wear the wetsuit or not.

Natalie is coming in less than 5 hours. I've got to get busy. Good luck to everyone racing at SC HIM or the 6 Gaps Century or other races this weekend. Kevin and Wes and NAMC and Team ZootGu peeps, see you there!

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Doug and Annika are going to Cartersville this morning to ride in the Beautiful Back Roads Century. Doug loaded up the car last night while Annika and I washed a selection of sunglasses. Then, Doug and Annika filled their bottles and rustled up their gear this morning. Annika was briefly offended that she had to put a sweatshirt on over her Team Bachman jersey but was mollified with the idea that she could remove the sweatshirt before the ride actually started. Hopefully Doug thinks about putting the jersey on the outside of the sweatshirt if it's still too cold at the start.

As they walking out the door, Annika told Doug to make sure that he had her pink sunglasses.

Because those make her look like a movie star.

She is the cutest thing. Very excited to be going on a bike ride with Dad.

So, watch out for my superstar on her hook-up-bike behind Doug - wearing my new helmet and her movie star sunglasses.

In other news, Dagny and I are going to a jumping party this morning if her tummy is better. She had some kind of upset yesterday (my laundry area is still a biohazard zone) but I hope it has passed.

Friday, September 19, 2008

After law school, my friend Stephanie made a list of the stuff she wanted to do before she was dead. Then, she proceeded to check stuff off of the list. I never saw her list but I remember some of the stuff on it.

Fast forward to this week, when I found my friend Trish's blog here. Trish makes beautiful bread. Baking bread is on my list.

So, even though I don't think death is knocking on my door, here is my list, in no particular order. Feel free to comment with your own list or just ridicule my list:

Watch my kids grow up, get married and have kids of their own. Sappy, I know.

Actually learn to speak Russian. I took it in college and it didn't stick. At all.

Learn to bake bread - the fat, floury loaves that you see in restaurants. Several attempts at this have turned out very badly. Did you know that sourdough starter can go bad? Well, it can. I even have a bread machine and that sucks too.

Cross-country ski. Doug has always talked about this and regular skiing turned out to be fun so I want to give it a try.

Move to Colorado.

Run a marathon.

Have a piano in our house and learn to play it better than a 10 year old.

Learn to knit more than just a square. Learn to knit was always on my list and I can do it, but only in a square or rectangle - no turning or joining.

Grow old with Doug. He won't be able to hear and I won't be able to see and we'll both have to get new knees but that's OK.

I haven't put an Ironman on the list yet. I have to wait and see how this Half Ironman distance race works out. There are plenty of places that I've never been but would like to go (San Francisco, NYC) but those are "it would be nice to-dos". I don't think I'd regret them if I got called home tomorrow.

Monday, September 15, 2008

Today begins the 50% week of tapering for the half iron-distance race. 50% feels like a vacation for me so I'm enjoying the time to catch up on other stuff (like laundry, and Annika's art projects, paying the bills, actually writing on the blog). Next week is even less so I'll be coloring my hair and baking, I imagine. Doug won't even recognize me.

At any rate, here is my race plan for South Carolina HIM:

Swim: 40 minutes. This is slightly faster than 2:00 mins per 100. This is "forever" pace for me, so I don't intend to hammer the swim at all. It's the warm-up. 1 Gu pre-swim after magic oatmeal/coffee for breakfast.T1: Under 3 minutes would be good here. Wetsuit removal could add time, though, so I'm considering going without it.Bike: 3.2 hours (17.5 mph average pace). 3 bottles Accelerade, 5 oz Gu in the flask, and water in the aerobottle. "Pick-me-up" of fig newtons at halfway point or whenever I'm in the valley. This will be tough for me. I just have to tell myself that we've done it before with a pee break so I can do it now.T2: Again, under 3 minutes is fine. If I can squeeze the potty break within this time, even better.Run: 2 hours. This is just slightly above 9:00 min/mile average pace. So long as my GI cooperates, I can do this. 3 Gus and Nuun in my hand-bottle. I should only need 2 Gus but I'll bring the extra and an extra Nuun just in case.

Therefore, here are the time goals:

Finish

Finish under 6 hrs

Finish without touring all of the porto-potties

Plan B is to average 10:00 min/mile for 2hrs 11 mins for the run and come in later. If I have to stop more than once at the potties and get behind, this will trigger a shift to Plan B. Plan B is just as good, but less fast.

And on the marathon front, last week my long run was 17 miles. Huge distance record for me.

I know, holy cow! And, it didn't even hurt.

This week, I had 12 on my plan but I think I screwed up the plan so I aimed for 14 at a 10 min per mile average pace. This is not a fast pace for me, but when you add in the potty stops and water breaks it really is. Combine that with regular milk instead of soy for breakfast (we were out of soy) and what you get is trouble. I had almost caught back up to 10 minute pace when I had to stop the second time and then I was behind for the entire rest of the run. Next time I'll go out a little bit faster so that I don't run out of real estate at the end to get back to my time. It didn't help that the weather was overcast and the clouds kept spitting rain at me. It's harder to run when you are wet.

This week, 8-10 miles (tapering!) and then the race so my long runs will start back on the week of Oct 12 (earlier if I feel good and the blood donation doesn't wipe me out).